RE: Tonight's officiating (and a comment about Pierce)

["Berry, Mark S" <berrym@BATTELLE.ORG>]

I won't go far as to call Pierce "Jordanesque" but he has become an
offensive terror. Inside or out, off the dribble or posting up--doesn't
matter. And you're right about how important it is to get to the foul line.
The one thing Pierce needs to improve upon is his passing out of double
teams--making teams pay for double teams, rather than just finding the
easiest outlet to a teammate. But that's quibbling. He has emerged as a
great offensive player and is better than I ever thought he would be. If he
continues to add to his game like he has this season, he'll be an all-star
for many years to come. And he can play SF or SG, so it gives the team some
flexibility in case they ever wanted to... oh, I don't know... try Antoine
at small forward. 

Playoffs are actually looking pretty good. A win tonight would be big, but
even with a loss and the homecoming game against the Spurs looming, we do
have the easy stretch Joe talked about coming up. The Pacers look like a
team on the verge of implosion. If the Celts take care of business in that
easy stretch, the pressure may just crack Indy.

Potential Celtic Jamaal Tinsley crashed and burned last night as Iowa St.
was upset by Hampton. Didn't get to see the game, so I still can't form an
opinion on Tinsley. I'm hoping to catch some of the Western Kentucky game
today to find out something about this Chris Marcus character. Don't you
love it when a Chris Marcus drops out of the sky like this? Between him, Yao
Ming, Eddy Curry and the rest of the highly-touted high schoolers, this
draft has me giddy--not really about what the Celtics will get, but just the
mystery of it all. This has to be the biggest boom or bust draft in league
history. 

Mark